


The Names We Use.

by thethingwithfeathers



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Councillor Kane, Dr. Griffin - Freeform, F/M, I knew I was invested in this relationship when Abby started calling him MArcus, I spent way too long thinking about this, names are important yo, so I wrote about that, these are my choices
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-13
Updated: 2017-03-13
Packaged: 2018-10-03 21:05:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10258268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thethingwithfeathers/pseuds/thethingwithfeathers
Summary: Headcannons and fluff.Glimpses into the lives and names of Abby and Marcus.A look into the different ways they are addressed by others. The focus of course being on their relationship and the significance of the names they use. Basically I get emotional about Abby being the only one to call him Marcus (other than Vera) so I wrote a thing.(Already posted on tumblr- I didn't have an account on here before so sorry if you've already seen it.)





	

Her parents name her Abigail; they found it in a book of baby names that was stored on the ark computers. The book tells them that Abigail has a Hebrew origin and means Father’s Joy. Her family is not religious but her dad immediately loves the name. Even before she is born he is certain that she will be the best thing he’s ever done. 

Vera picked out the name Marcus when she was 15. The Ark has a huge wealth of information about the Romans and Vera absorbs it all eagerly. She is particularly struck by the story of Marcus Aurelius, an able military leader, but more importantly an intellectual who values the mind above all else. Vera delights in her son, just as she always knew she would. 

It is very early in her life when she becomes Abby to her friends and just about everyone else. This suits the little girl who thinks Abigail sounds old and formal. She also kind of likes it that her parents have a special name for her, something just for the three of them. There is universal agreement that the name Abby suits the high energy, smiling little girl whose hair streams behind her as she runs and plays. 

When he is 11 the most popular boy in his class, Jared befriends him. He is surprised but pleased when Jared makes the effort. Marcus is quiet and serious to Jared’s noise and charm. Jared’s dad is on the council and he seems able to get away with anything so when Jared asks him if he can copy his work Marcus says yes even though he knows it’s wrong. They are caught of course and when the teacher confronts them Jared immediately drawls, “Well Marky here was having trouble with the work. I was just trying to help him out but I guess he copied me”. Marcus burns with shame and anger and in that moment promises himself that nobody will ever call him Marky again and that one day he will get on the council and make sure the rules apply evenly to everyone. 

Her dad gets sick when she is 14 and there is nothing anyone can do to make him better. Everything happens so fast and Abby feels her near perfect life disappear in an instant. He holds her hand and lets his tears fall freely. “I love you so much Abigail. I’m so proud of you.” She decides right then she is going to be a doctor, and save as many people as possible. It lights a fire in her and during those long nights studying and struggling through the material her dad’s final words sustain her. 

By the time he is a teenager he has become Kane to most people. He wears his last name like armor. He understands why his dad is bitter, working long hours for little reward but not why he turns that anger towards his wife and his son. Instead of hiding from his last name he owns it, doesn’t give anyone the chance to use it against him. 

Jake calls her Abby most of the time, but he also calls her sweetheart and babe and whatever endearment pops into his head because they always make Abby smile at him (even if they are occasionally accompanied by an eye roll). She passes all her tests and becomes the youngest fully qualified doctor the Ark has ever had. When Jake proposes a few months later she is delirious with happiness. Jake starts calling her Doctor Griffin, his grin lighting up his whole face, “Dr. and Mr. Griffin, we’ll be unstoppable” he tells her and they both believe it. 

His first serious girlfriend usually calls him Kane, which suits him fine, or baby, which he hates. She does occasionally call him by his full name though, which he finds he sort of likes. She is smart and beautiful and when she smiles at him and sighs out “Marcus Kane” he can’t help but smile back. He isn’t sure if he loves her, but he wants to love her. It falls apart when he realizes that she thinks he is broken, that she wants to be the one to fix him, to turn him into someone else. After they break up she goes back to calling him Kane, like everyone else. 

He calls her Abby and she calls him Kane. They use each other’s names all the time, though neither of them gives that fact much thought. 

The way he says her name when they are arguing drives her insane. Abby, he sighs in a voice dripping with condescension and she wants to punch him in the face. More than once she barley restrains herself to spitting his name back at him, like the very letters are a poison, Kane. 

They do agree with each other sometimes though. Not often maybe, but more than many people realize. Those times, when they were united in a cause they would exchange a small look, knowing that united they were essentially unbeatable.   
“Abby is right.” He would say matter-of-factly and around the table eyebrows would arch, some half joking, some not. Other times Abby would declare, “I agree with Kane.” And most of the council would save some time and just go with whatever it was. 

After Jake was floated, Clarke was imprisoned and the situation with the air supply became known to the council their animosity ratcheted up even higher. How could it not? There was so much anger in both of them, at the situation, at themselves and at each other. Each interaction became an accusation, either outright or badly hidden behind a thin veneer of civility. 

Then Diana Sydney tried to kill them all and Vera Kane lay dying and for the first time ever Marcus could not even say her name to call her over. She came anyway of course, and there was no need for words between the two of them, Vera was gone and they both knew it, though Abby could read the desperation to be wrong in his eyes. 

When she saw him again later that day, she saw him, his walls were down and Abby saw through his mask and his title to the man. He was trying to be Kane, detached and unaffected and Abby realized in that moment that he did so because he believed it was the only way to do his job. She wanted him to know that someone saw him and someone cared. To acknowledge the internal turmoil he was trying to deny to himself. It was natural in that moment to call him Marcus, his first name came out of her mouth without a second thought as her hand found his shoulder. 

Abby believed she was going to die in the service bay. Her thoughts turned to her husband and daughter. She wondered if she would see Jake again and she hoped Clarke was alive and safe. Then she felt hands on her, turning her, cupping her face and his voice broke through the haze, calling for her to wake up, desperation and hope mingling together in the way he said her name. 

He stays Marcus to her. She isn’t sure if its because he crawled into the burning hot maintenance shaft and found her or because she wants him to know, for both of them that she sees him, imperfect and scarred and working, always working for their people and putting himself last. 

Things threaten to fall apart when Abby arms the delinquents and Marcus orders her shock lashed. They disagree but understand each other. Abby does not forgive him right away, not while the pain is still raw and throbbing, but she offers him understanding with her defiance. There is no way for Abby to miss the unspoken apology in his decision to go and leave the pin with her. (Ironically Abby later realizes it is his willingness to admit his mistakes and give up power that helps make him a good one to have it.) 

When he walks, almost saunters really, back into camp the only thing she trusts herself to say is his name, taken aback by the intensity of the relief she feels at seeing him alive and safe. When he calls her chancellor she feels her burden get slightly lighter and while she is not entirely sure she likes being chancellor, she definitely likes the way he says it to her. 

Less than a day after his return back to camp she catches him flinch ever so slightly when his forearm makes contact with the table. Abby decided not to focus on the fact that she was watching him closely enough to notice and reached out to grab his hand. He, of course, tries to tell her that it's nothing but she's heard that from him too many times to believe it and she simply raises an eyebrow and says maybe a little sharper than necessary, "Marcus". He realizes this is not a battle worth fighting and submits his arm for her to examine, knowing he'll now have to tell her the whole story. When she is done tending to him she looks at him with a mix of anger and sadness and fondness that shouldn't be possible but is and says "No more trying to sacrifice yourself Marcus. I need you with me down here."   
He nods and offers her a hint of a smile when he responds, "Yes chancellor."   
Abby can't help but respond with a small smile. "Don't you forget it Councilor." 

When Abby finds him buried under the rubble in TonDC her purpose in life narrows to getting him out, keeping him alive, not allowing him to give up. She calls his name, as he had months earlier and takes his hand. She calls his name again when more rubble falls on them, she knows the desperation is clear in her voice as she repeats his name over and over, a chant and a prayer, using her sheer force of will to make him wake up and answer. 

As they begin the walk back from Mount Weather he takes her hand when he sees her face contort in pain and with tenderness she never thought she’d hear from him he asks, “Abby, is there anything I can do?” She manages a small smile before it twists in pain and she squeezes his hand harder.   
“Stay beside me, Marcus?” she asks hesitantly.   
“Of course Abby” he assures her instantly, and he does. He speaks quietly to her and she knows he is trying to distract her from the pain and for once she is too tired to pretend to be ok and she lets his voice wash over her. 

He loves the ground and Abby loves witnessing the moments he lets his guard down, when he is Marcus, not councilor and leader of the guard, just himself. In these moments he will reach for her, his voice hushed and filled with awe. “Abby, look over there. Look at that.” He’ll point and she’ll follow his gaze to whatever site has caught his attention this time. A waterfall in the distance, an animal running through the forest, sometimes even something as simple as fruit growing ripe and full on a tree. She smiles back at him, “It’s beautiful Marcus”. 

They still argue, that will never change but it’s different now, he is far more wiling to compromise and apologize which helps Abby to soften towards him. Each understands now that they share the same goals, peace and safety for their people. They still snap at each other but now they know the arguments are temporary. They find themselves relying on each other and so they grow slowly and steadily closer. Abby has not heard her name said in that smug condescending voice since they landed on the ground and she has promised herself that she will never use his name as an accusation the way she has in the past 

Marcus has never commented on the change in the way Abby addresses him, pretended not to care for a short period of time but he wasn’t even fooling himself. He likes that Abby sees him, she somehow manages to convey her belief in him through just continuing to call him Marcus, it makes him want to be that man she believes he can be. 

It is easy to rile Abby Griffin up, she is fiercely protective of not just her family but of all their people and what she believes is right. When anything is threatened she reacts instinctively and it must be said, not always helpfully. She is also motivated first and foremost as a mother, she wants Clarke safe and if at all possible happy and she wants to KNOW Clarke is safe. Abby has never shied away from ruffling the feathers of others; she is not a born diplomat. Yet now all it takes to ground her, to calm her, at least temporarily, is the light pressure of his hand on her arm and her name on his lips. 

Then comes Pike and the election and the failed coup and she is no longer willing to pretend she doesn’t love him. She holds onto her own words to him, “let’s call it hope” as she fights down her desperation, which she can feel rising like bile, threatening to drown her from within. She refuses to let it and because some things should never change when he tells her not to try and save him she does it anyway, of course she does. When he finally, finally kisses her Abby hopes and believes it is for the first but not the last time. 

Neither of them will ever forgive ALIE for using their relationship against them. It will take them a long time to heal, but both know the only way to do it is together. So that is what they do, learning how to support and comfort one another. “Abby” he whispers, voice breaking as she holds him close, kneeling on the floor of the throne room. They need so many less words now than they used to and he says so much with just her name. She answers back with his own, voice quiet and gentle, a reassurance, an apology, a declaration of love, “Marcus. Oh Marcus.” 

There is so much work to be done but they take any moment they can get. Abby learns that she loves the way he says her name in the morning. His voice comes out low and rough and she loves that she is the one who gets to hear it. She has even, once or twice pretended to still be asleep because she knows he will press little kisses on her forehead or her hair or her shoulder, as she lies spooned against him. “Abby, wake up. C’mon Abby, we have get up love”, his voice like rich, strong coffee pulling her awake. 

He loves that she always says goodnight to him. If he comes into their room after her he tries so hard not to wake her, but inevitably when he slides in beside her she will stir half awake and sleepily cuddle up to him while murmuring a sleep slurred, “G’night Marcus. Love you.” 

Of course they also enjoy finding new ways to make the other say their names. Abby enjoys making him lose the control he prizes so highly. The way he says her name at the end of a groan, or pants it out, her name tumbling out past his kiss swollen lips drives her crazy. 

When she moans his name the first time, breathless and urgent, he makes it a goal to hear her say it as often as possible for however much longer they are given to live. When minutes later she breathes against his ear, "Marcus you feel so good" he can feel himself fall apart a little more. 

He learns new ways to make her say his name and delights in them all. When he slides his hand between her legs she will sigh out his name softly, when he replaces his hands with his head between her thighs, his tongue and lips coax her towards pure bliss she tends to bite her lip, trying not too make too much noise but when he raises his eyes to look at her, when his mouth and his beard are right where she needs him his name comes out in a near scream. 

When she slides a hand into his hair he lets out a soft sigh. When her lips find that spot on his neck, under his ear her name falls from his lips as a moan. When she finally gets a hand on his cock he stutters out her name “A-Abby”. Her name quickly becomes the only word he can form in the midst of wordless groans that Abby loves to hear. 

Marcus doesn’t do pet names the way Jake did, he pretty much sticks to Abby, but she can’t say she minds. She likes that there are things that separate the two men. In private though he will occasionally add to her name, “Abby, love, it’s ok. You’re ok.” he says softly when she wakes shaking and clammy from a nightmare. 

Abby occasionally calls Marcus sweetheart. She isn’t sure that he likes it, but he never protests and Abby secretly likes it that she gets to call him that sometimes, from anyone else he would not put up with it, but from her he does. Mostly though, she just continues to call him Marcus. He is still Kane to everyone else and she feels privileged that she is the one who gets to know Marcus. 

They survive. It takes everyone, but they manage it, the sky people and the grounders together. They lose too many good people and they are an emotionally and physically exhausted group, very nearly, but not quite beaten. 

A year and a half after the defeat of ALIE they find new names to call each other. Abby never thought she would call another man husband. Marcus long ago stopped believing he would ever have a wife. Each delights in saying and hearing their new titles. The morning after their wedding Marcus smiles at her, draped across his chest. “Good morning wife” he says smiling brightly. Abby feels a giddy happiness spread through her as she answers, “Good morning husband”.


End file.
